Gene selection is a beautiful science. An elegant dance of the double helix: splicing, selecting, and producing new combinations of people with new and unique features – a new song. You.
Evolution is the magical conductor in this orchestra. Its not-so-mysterious pattern of directing the wind instruments to play allegro and brass to follow the percussion is affected by many factors – with one of the most notable being the environment around us. It feels like a slow process relative to a single human life, but the orchestrated nuances that eventually create a notable characteristic and produce a new song occur within each new generation – even if not noticed by the keen senses of the audience in that short time.
You may have heard that you are “one in a million”, but my nerdy-ness tells me that you are even more unique than that.
One of the best played songs I’ve witnessed so far by this conductor would be my son and others like him.
Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) is a clinical term that is used to categorize a subset of the population and explain the manner in which brain wiring is outside typical scientific expectations. New and different wiring causes new patterns of activity in how the human brain reacts to stimuli. This neurodiversity is vastly different from person to person, and the spectrum of neurodiverse individuals is exciting because the features and presentations are so varied. If you are interested in neurodiversity, Now This has created a fantastic video to explain it further.
As a mother to a neurodiverse son, and a sister to a neurodiverse brother, I’ve seen amazing abilities in my family that have been selected to create an even more beautiful musical. Sometimes the song is very overwhelming because the culture hasn’t caught up with accepting the style of the song. Maybe it’s too loud, or too scattered, or the saxophone should be playing on another bar. In those times we are fortunate to have a caring clinical community and governance to support the costs of redesigning a micro-society around a neurodiverse individual. With the advancement of technology and light speed of social media, the acceptance of change happens much more quickly than we could ever communicate before. This megaphone to the entire planet is a useful tool in changing the way in which individuals, groups, cultures and society share new perspectives and encourage positive changes in thinking.
I would challenge individuals and groups alike to think of ASD as neurodiversity rather than a disability. The experience of having neurodiverse individuals in my family has been exceptional. There are always trials and tribulations as in any neurotypical family, but from what I have seen over my short life is that there hasn’t been a situation that wasn’t made better by the understanding of the groups of people around us. What if that group could be the whole city? country? The whole continent? The world? This is not a new concept in terms of diversity on the planet, but the more you know, the more you can participate with confidence in positive changes in thinking and the culture around us.
What if neurodiverse individuals have been genetically selected by the environment to help make the environment better for diversity on a macro scale? Sneaky.
Evolution my pals…she’s a mysterious conductor with a plan. An entire musical on broadway. What an artist.
Sincerely yours,
A Fumbling Mom to a Neurodiverse Kid
Fumbling Mom 